Water flow not sufficient for Fayette school fire suppression system 10.17

There’s been plenty of talk about too much water at the site of Fayette’s new school. Now the conversation has shifted to the lack of water.

There will be plenty of water for drinking and general purposes. The problem is related to the fire suppressant system.

Jim Price of Buehrer Group Architecture and Engineering told board of education members Monday the new system is 118 gallons a minute short of supplying the required amount of water.

Price said his firm obtained data from the village for a location on Willard Court, about 4,000 feet from the school location.

Board member David Brinegar asked if the village’s data was wrong.

“Not necessarily,” Price answered.

Fayette village administrator Tom Spiess agreed with that assessment when asked about the issue later.

“The background data that we had was made available to the school’s design team early on in the project,” Spiess said. “We shared what we had, and let them know that they were welcome to follow up with our engineers if needed.”

The data was the result of water flow testing for an ISO insurance rating. To his knowledge, the village engineering firm was not contacted for additional information.

Price said his firm will consider three options. First, he wants to make sure all valves in the village water system are fully opened. Spiess said that option was explored and resulted in a small increase in water flow.

A second option would involve laying a new water line to form a loop in the village system. Currently, the school is at the end of the water line. A loop might increase capacity, Price said, but testing will have to be conducted to see if that option is feasible.

The third option would involve constructing a storage device capable of holding 30,000 gallons of water. That’s the quantity of water needed to supply the required 60 minutes of fire suppression.

Price would like to avoid that option due to the added costs, however, he didn’t address the cost of a new water line to form a loop.

Price will meet with village officials Friday to further discuss the issue. Spiess said he was hopeful the school’s design team will find some cost effective solutions that benefit both the school and the community.